BBC Audio: Hearts, Keys, and Puppetry by Neil Gaiman and the Twitterverse

SFFaudio Online Audio

Proving that Twitter is good for more than fomenting revolutions and letting people know what you’re having for lunch, BBC Audiobooks America has assembled a collaborative audiobook written by Neil Gaiman and the “Twitterverse.” It’s available for FREE |HERE| and I’ve assembled the disparate MP3 files into a HuffDuffer podcast feed too.

BBC Audio - Hearts, Keys, And Puppetry by Neil Gaiman and the TwitterverseHearts, Keys, and Puppetry
By Neil Gaiman and the Twitterverse; Read by Katherine Kellgren
9 MP3 Files or HuffDuffer Podcast – Approx. 1 Hour 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audio
Published: December 1, 2009
So began the Twitter Audio project, with a dazzling first line penned by New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman. What followed was an epic tale of imaginary lands, magical objects, haunting melodies, plucky sidekicks, menacing villains and much more. From mystical blue roses to enchanted mirrors to pesky puppets, this classic fable was born from the collective creativity of more than one hundred contributors via the social network Twitter.com in a groundbreaking literary experiment. Together, virtual strangers crafted a rollicking story of a young girl’s journey with love, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Chapter 1 |MP3| Chapter 2 |MP3| Chapter 3 |MP3| Chapter 4 |MP3| Chapter 5 |MP3| Chapter 6 |MP3|
Chapter 7 |MP3| Chapter 8 |MP3| Chapter 9 |MP3|

Podcast feed:

http://huffduffer.com/tags/hearts_keys_and_puppetry/rss

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[via BBC Audiobooks America]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals – Arthur C. Clarke

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Science Fiction Audiobook - Childhood's End by Arthur C. ClarkeChildhood’s End
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by Eric Michael Summerer
7 CDs – 8 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio / Audible Frontiers
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781423395034

The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city – intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began.

But at what cost? With the advent of peace, man ceases to strive for creative greatness, and a malaise settles over the human race. To those who resist, it becomes evident that the Overlords have an agenda of their own.

As civilization approaches the crossroads, will the Overlords spell the end for humankind…or the beginning?
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. ClarkeRendezvous with Rama
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by Peter Ganim
8 CDs – 9 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio / Audible Frontiers
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781423394983

At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft.

Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind’s first encounter with alien intelligence. It will kindle their wildest dreams…and fan their darkest fears. For no one knows who the Ramans are or why they have come. And now the moment of rendezvous awaits – just behind a Raman airlock door.
 
 
Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The Inheritors (An Extravagant Story) by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford

SFFaudio Online Audio

Mike Hagerty, in response to the Fourth Annual SFFaudio Challenge, has recorded and posted a 1901 Science Fiction(y) collaborative novel by two giants of English literature. You can currently get the entire audiobook for FREE either via LearnOutLoud.com or Archive.org. There are plans afoot to get it up on LibriVox.org as well (which will provide a very handy podcast feed). Thanks so much Mike!

The Inheritors by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox FordThe Inheritors (An Extravagant Story)
By Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford; Read by Mike Hagerty
7 MP3 Files o 7 OGG Vorbis Files – Approx. 6 Hours 28 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Archive.org / LearnOutLoud.com
Published: November 2009
The Inheritors: An Extravagant Story (1901) is a quasi-science fiction novel on which Ford Madox Ford and Joseph Conrad collaborated. It looks at society’s mental evolution and what is gained and lost in the process. Written before the first World War, its themes of corruption and the effect of the 20th Century on British aristocracy appeared to predict history. In the novel, the metaphor of the “fourth dimension” is used to explain a societal shift from a generation of people who have traditional values of interdependence, being overtaken by a modern generation who believe in expediency, callously using political power to bring down the old order. Its narrator is an aspiring writer who himself makes a similar transition at a personal level only to feel he has lost everything.

Posted by Jesse Willis

NPR: Neil Gaiman Asks: Heard Any Good Books Lately?

SFFaudio Online Audio

NPRThere’s a brief “open mic” segment on today’s episode of NPR’s Morning Edition that I think you’d all like to hear:

Neil Gaiman, a self professed lover of audiobooks, is evangelizing the audiobook. For his segment he’s done some interviews with some audiobook movers and shakers. He’s spreading the good word, taking on the specific arguments of the unbelievers, and generally praising the audio medium. Have a listen…

Or download the |MP3|. Incidentally a click through to the NPR page on this segment also reveals two extended interviews with narrator Martin Jarvis…

and David Sedaris…

[via Audible.com’s Twitter feed]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals – Audible Frontiers

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Science Fiction Audiobook - Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanislaw LemMemoirs Found in a Bathtub
By Stanislaw Lem; Read by Jeff Woodman
6 Hours, 38 Mins – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2009

The year is 3149, and a vast paper destroying blight-papyralysis-has obliterated much of the planet’s written history. However, these rare memoirs, preserved for centuries in a volcanic rock, record the strange life of a man trapped in a hermetically sealed underground community.
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - His Master's Voice by Stanislaw LemHis Master’s Voice
By Stanislaw Lem; Read by Nick Sullivan
9 Hours, 17 Mins – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2009

Here is a witty and inventive satire of “men of science” and their thinking, as a team of scientists races to decode a mysterious message from space. “I had the feeling that I was standing at the cradle of a new mythology. A last will and testament…we as the posthumous heirs of Them….”
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - Fiasco by Stanislaw LemFiasco
By Stanislaw Lem; Read by Oliver Wyman
14 Hours, 43 Mins – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2009

The planet Quinta is pocked by ugly mounds and covered by a spiderweb-like network. It is a kingdom of phantoms and of a beauty afflicted by madness. In stark contrast, the crew of the spaceship Hermes represents a knowledge-seeking Earth. As they approach Quinta, a dark poetry takes over and leads them into a nightmare of misunderstanding.
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - Diving Into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn RuschDiving Into the Wreck
By Kristine Kathryn Rusch; Read by Jennifer Van Dyck
9 Hours, 45 Mins – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2009

Boss loves to dive historical ships, derelict spacecraft found adrift in the blackness between the stars. Sometimes she salvages for money, but mostly she’s an active historian. She wants to know about the past – to experience it firsthand. Once she’s dived the ship, she’ll either leave it for others to find or file a claim so that she can bring tourists to dive it as well. It’s a good life for a tough loner, with more interest in artifacts than people.

Then one day, Boss finds the claim of a lifetime: an enormous spacecraft, incredibly old, and apparently Earth-made. It’s impossible for something so old, built in the days before Faster Than Light travel, to have journeyed this far from Earth. It shouldn’t be here. It can’t be here. And yet, it is. Boss’s curiosity is up, and she’s determined to investigate. She hires a group of divers to explore the wreck with her, the best team she can assemble. But some secrets are best kept hidden, and the past won’t give up its treasures without exacting a price in blood. What Boss finds could rewrite history, cost lives, and start an intergalactic war.
 
 
Fantasy Audiobook - Shadows Return: Nightrunner, Book 4 by Lynn FlewellingShadows Return: Nightrunner, Book 4
By Lynn Flewelling; Read by Adam Danoff
12 Hours, 6 Mins – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2009

With their most treacherous mission yet behind them, heroes Seregil and Alec resume their double life as dissolute nobles and master spies. But in a world of rivals and charmers, fate has a different plan.

After their victory in Aurnen, Alec and Seregil have returned home to Rhminee. But with most of their allies dead or exiled, it is difficult for them to settle in. Hoping for diversion, they accept an assignment that will take them back to Seregils homeland. En route, however, they are ambushed and separated, and both are sold into slavery. Clinging to life, Seregil is sustained only by the hope that Alec is alive.

But it is not Alecs life his strange master wants – it is his blood. For his unique lineage is capable of producing a rare treasure, but only through a harrowing process that will test him body and soul and unwittingly entangle him and Seregil in the realm of alchemists and madmen and an enigmatic creature that may hold their very destiny in its inhuman hands. But will it prove to be savior or monster?
 
 

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Recent Arrivals – Edgar Allan Poe

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Horror Audiobook - Deus Et Machina by Edgar Allan PoeDeus Et Machina
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
4 CDs – 4.5 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Acoustic Learning
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780980058161

Edgar Allan Poe, 19th-century high-tech correspondent, reports on recent advances in science and metaphysical knowledge.

THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR: By the power of a mesmeric spell, an invalid’s soul is trapped at the exact moment of death.

VON KEMPELEN AND HIS DISCOVERY: The legendary formula– pursued by alchemists throughout the ages– will finally be secret no more.

Also includes:
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
The Power of Words
The Colloquy of Monos and Una
Cabs
A Moving Chapter
Street Paving
Wooden Pavement
Try a Mineralized Pavement
The Daguerreotype
Anastatic Printing
A Chapter on Science and Art
 
 
Horror Audiobook - The Cask of Amontillado and Other Stories by Edgar Allan PoeThe Cask of Amontillado and Other Stories
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
3 CDs – 3.5 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Acoustic Learning
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780980058147

Includes:
Message Found In a Bottle
The Oblong Box
The Light-House
The Oval Portrait
The Cask of Amontillado
The Premature Burial
Ligeia
Eleonora
 
 
Horror Audiobook - The Pioneers by Edgar Allan PoeThe Pioneers
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
6 CDs – 7.5 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Acoustic Learning
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780980058154

Travel with Poe across the vast Atlantic, to the wild uncharted regions of the Americas, and even to the moon!

Includes:
The Unparalleled Adventure of Hans Pfaal
The Balloon-Hoax
The Journal of Julius Rodman
Some Account of Stone-Henge
The Island of the Fay
Harper’s Ferry
The Capitol at Washington
The Elk, or Morning on the Wissahickon

Posted by Scott D. Danielson